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Capitals Drub Beleaguered Lightning

May 14, 2018, 12:04 PM ET [14 Comments]
Sam Hitchcock
Tampa Bay Lightning Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Bad choices can haunt a team. The Lightning have failed to slow down Washington and now they are two losses from elimination. The Capitals have been the quicker team in their retrievals and transition, and last night Tampa Bay did not register an even-strength goal. But it is the Lightning’s puck management and decision-making that are strangling them.

On the Devante Smith-Pelly goal, J.T. Miller’s attempted pass to Ryan McDonagh sprung the counterattack. On the Lars Eller goal, it was Ryan Callahan making a bad read and attempting to intercept a Jakub Vrana pass that left Eller unchecked. (Anton Stralman was very slow to get up after he fell behind the Lightning net, which forced Callahan to misread the support he had around him.) On the Evgeny Kuznetsov power-play tally, it was foolish for Andrei Vasilevskiy to set the pick on Andre Burakovsky. On the Alexander Ovechkin clincher, it was wrong for Braydon Coburn to commit to the pinch, given the low-reward, high-risk scenario of who was on the ice and the lack of support around him. In hockey, especially at this stage of the playoffs, the margin for error is low. The Capitals have the speed and skill to roast a team that plays injudiciously.

The Lightning cannot continue to allow the Capitals to pick up speed in the neutral zone. The best way to prevent this is through the forecheck and cycle. If the Capitals are defending for long stretches of time in their own zone it will undermine the efficacy and unbounded speed of their rush. But it will also require that the Lightning simplify: funnel pucks toward the net. The Capitals are too good at getting in passing lanes (like on the Smith-Pelly goal), and utilizing them as a platform for their outstanding counterattack. One of the best saves goaltender Braden Holtby made last night was in the first period when Mikhail Sergachev found a shooting lane and Miller screened Holtby. In the previous series, the Penguins also experienced success against Washington when they shot from every angle and threw bodies in front of Holtby. The key is after the shot. The only way the Lightning can beat the Capitals is by retrieving endlessly, not by trading rushes.

The most damning statistic from last night might be that Cedric Paquette and Ryan Callahan led the Lightning in Scoring Chances and shot attempts at 5v5. The NBC Sports broadcast drew attention to the 1-1-3 neutral-zone set the Capitals are using to defend against the Lightning, but the Lightning just smashed the Bruins using the forecheck. The Lightning are equipped to chip-and-retrieve, but that requires getting to the puck faster than their opponent and having success along the boards. They have been ineffective in both facets.

When the Capitals’ gaps have been roomy enough to let the Lightning carry the puck in, it has been a struggle to generate any separation for the first and second wave. Most of the Capitals’ defensemen are mobile, and even the fastest Lightning forwards have not been able to blast past them. What has resulted is a flurry of blocked passes and shots, which has led to one-and-dones.

Even when territorial advantage is established, the Lightning defensemen have conspicuously failed because their pinches have proven costly. Partly, that is due to the transition defense flagging. Which is odd, because the Lightning’s transition defense was phenomenal against the Bruins, even versus speedsters like Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.

With the way the Capitals defend in their own zone (they overload the bottom half of the ice), it is hard to envision a successful Lightning cycle that does not involve their defensemen. The Lightning’s offense hums when there is interchange between their forwards and defensemen. Therefore, the Lightning need their forwards present and focused in transition defense. If the support is not there, the Capitals will continue to exploit that fact.

After how well the Lightning’s breakout looked against Boston, it has been surprising to see how much it has struggled in this series. Tampa Bay’s defensemen have struggled on their first pass, and the Capitals have done an excellent job winning the battles along the boards and obtaining positioning inside the slot. Ultimately, strategizing is fun because it is “in theory,” but if the execution is inadequate, then all is for naught.
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